Finally watched last week's Mad Men, in time for tonight's and just quick observations:

-Peggy is dealing with a massive dose of denial, but in that recognizes what she did and how it affects her family, but uses avoidance as a fabulous technique for not dealing. She's convinced herself it doesn't really have anything to do with her any longer, it seems like.

-Pete was just so lost and that shot of him staring out over the office pool, the look on his face showing so clearly that he's marveling at how the world can go on.

-His Devil's pact with Duck is going to come back to bite him on the ass.

-Going to be interesting to see how Don reacts to Duck playing Pete against him this way.

Which guy is the one with the big paycheck that made Guy with Glasses so upset? Some of the bullpen tends to blend together.

The blond who worked with Peggy on the lipstick campaign last season.

AKA blond = Kenny, guy w/glasses = Harry

Ok. Sorry, guys. It's not that they are not good, but the workforce is rather homogenous.

It's so true.

I think that's kind of the point, erika-- that they were kind of homogeneous, especially in the first season, to give that impression of drones, as it were, yet as they get further into this season, you see the differences coming to light as they all try to distinguish themselves.

Paul's trying to be the literary breakout, the one who's only killing time at the ad agency while he writes the Great American Novel

Harry's looking to the future, both personally, with his wife being pregnant and professionally, as he sees television making more of an impact with advertising.

And Kenny may be the most talented of the three, especially with respect to actual advertising, which is why he might be receiving the highest paycheck and he's also the one who can see the future of the workforce, in that he's the one who's been most willing to work with Peggy as an equal.

Ok. Sorry, guys. It's not that they are not good, but the workforce is rather homogenous.

a bit of the point, I think.

I just realized, no Pete this week.

Well, it makes it hard to keep them straight, is all I'm saying. And I didn't really remember Kenny till y'all pointed him out. Now I do.

Mad Men is hitting on all cylinders now. As good as last year was, these episodes are better. Everything's got so many layers now. They're really digging in to each of these characters and finding complex, ambiguous, revealing moments.

If HBO had kept this and Deadwood and Rome they'd be sitting pretty.

Everything's got so many layers now.

"It's like everything he says means something else."